Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
6 kilometers (4 miles) in length), in which it was fought, has been immortal-
ized for this and subsequent conflicts. In this particular battle, Leonidas held
the Persians for three days in heroic fighting against unbelievable odds. The
Persians were eventually led along another mountain pass by the Greek traitor,
Ephialtes
, allowing the Persians to outflank Leonidas's troops. Leonidas sent the
majority of his men to safety, leaving only 300 Spartan soldiers and their
helots
(state-owned serfs of the Spartans), and 1100 Boeotian troops (Boeotia was a
district in east-central Greece, which allied as the
Beotian League
in 550BC
under the leadership of Thebes). All of the men died in that battle. The Per-
sian victory at Thermopylae cost them a very high price in lives lost. Moreover,
the vast majority of the Greek soldiers and their ships escaped to the Isthmus
of Corinth where they rejoined the main Greek forces. To commemorate this
battle (of great heroism against massive odds) a marble and bronze monument
was erected in 1955.
Another epic battle at Thermopylae occurred in 279 BC when the Greeks
held and delayed the invading Celts. Although the Celts sacked Delphi in Greece
that year, they suffered massive defeat against the Aetolians. The
Aetolian
League
was a federal state in ancient Greece, which developed into a leading
military power (having allied with Boetia around 300 BC), and can be said to be
responsible for the driving out of the invasion of 279. A related battle occurred
in the pass many years later. The Aetolians were one of the Greek powers not
happy with Rome's growing power in Greece. They asked the Seleucid king
Antiochus III
to be their commander-in-chief of the Aetolian League. With the
help of the Aetolians, Antiochus occupied Euboea in 192 BC, but by 191, the
Romans, outnumbering him with troops by two to one, cut off his reinforcements
in Thrace and outflanked his position at the Thermopylae pass, forcing him to
retreat. Later his fleet was wiped out. Eventually in defeat, his kingdom was
reduced to Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Iran. In 187, he was murdered
near Susa, where he was trying to extract tribute to keep his empire afloat.
The Kama-sutra
There are more snippets of cryptography in other classical texts upon which
we would like to touch before we close the door on this section. For instance, the
Kama-sutra
of
Vatsayana
lists cryptography as the forty-fourth and forty-fifth
of sixty-four arts or
yogas
of which people should not only be aware, but also
put into practice, according to the texts. The Kama-sutra was written near the
end of the fourth century AD or the beginning of the fifth century, but there is
no certainty. In fact, Vatsayana says that his work is a compilation of earlier
works, so dating the cryptographic parts becomes even more problematic. A
rough translation of the relevant portions of the two aforementioned yogas is
given as follows: “The art of understanding writing in cipher, and the writing of
words in distinctive fashion. The art of speaking by altering the forms of words.
It is of various types. Some speak by altering the start and end of words, others
by adding superfluous letters between every syllable of a word, etc.”
Around a thousand years after the Kama-sutra appeared, cryptography was
used to conceal magical spells in a manuscript by Arnaldus de Bruxella. The
Search WWH ::
Custom Search